ROI calculator

How many L-Books do I have to sell before I start turning a profit? What does it roughly cost to produce an L-Book? What are the conditions for selling or giving away L-Books? Find answers here.

ROI stands for “return on investment” and we are committed to delivering so much value to you, that your investment in L-Books will give you far more back in return. Even if your main interest is not to sell L-Books, your ROI is satisfied users – and that is our main goal too.

To get started, here are some basic figures that we always use when calculating the production costs for any L-Book. Please note: these numbers are subject to change and this webpage does not represent a legally binding offer.

Static costs

These are costs that apply to every L-Book (regardless of length or complexity):

Pre-analysis per book: 20 euros

Processing fee per L-Book: 90 euros

License fee: starting from 10%

Variable costs

Depending on the type of L-Book you would like to make, the following costs may vary significantly (we’ll explain why further down on this page):

Conversion fee per page: starting from 15 euros

Termbase integration per new entry: starting from 20 euros

Other costs

Most L-Book related costs can be calculated based on the above figures. In some cases, especially where customization is required or other services besides L-Books are requested, we will have to consider other cost factors. Typically, we would then calculate the amount of time needed, who would need to be involved, and draft a quote to share with you for further discussion and fine tuning.

Factors affecting L-Book pricing

The following table shows two ends of a spectrum with innumerable gradations in between. It should serve to help you get an idea of what factors will drive up costs or how, on the other hand, you could keep production costs to a minimum.

Minimal cost to content owner

Maximum cost to content owner

Short text (€)Obviously the shorter the text, the fewer pages it has and the lower the conversion fee per page. Keep in mind, however, that there is a processing fee per L-Book, so microtexts with, say, 50 words, will not actually be that much different in price from a short story with 500 words.

Long text (€€€)Are you thinking of converting the Bible or a Tolstoy novel into an L-Book? Yes, length has an impact, since there are simply more words to annotate. But from a certain length upwards we may consider a bulk discount. You can also charge more for a longer L-Book so this will offset the costs, as well.

Simple text (€)When you first give us your book, we perform a text analysis to determine several parameters, including text complexity. It will be easier (cheaper) to convert your text if it uses conventional punctuation, has short sentences and very few unknown words.

Complicated text (€€€)Our initial text analysis will also reveal if your text is unusually complicated and therefore more difficult (expensive) to convert, e.g. if it uses unconventional punctuation, has many long-winded sentences and a disproportionate number of unknown words (such as technical terms or archaic forms).

Bulk order (€)In general, we will offer a discount for an individual order of 1,000 pages or more (we define one page as 300 words and one order may include several L-Books). Tip: We encourage you to convert as many different genres as possible into L-Books for foreign language acquisition. There are millions of readers out there eager to read them!

One text (€€)If you only give us one text to convert, there will generally be more work upfront for both you and us. You will have more questions and there will be more back and forth on how to set up or edit your termbase. Of course, getting started always takes some time, but if our work for one text becomes too involved, we may have to charge extra.

ePUB3 / XML (€)Our L-Book conversion workflow is based on current industry standards for digital publication. If your text is already available as a well-formatted ePUB3 book or an XML file is provided, we will be able to enter it into our system with minimal effort.

Other formats (€€)If your text is not delivered to us as an ePUB3 or XML file, there are a number of parameters (which are hard to anticipate) which may lead to higher costs, especially if we have to reformat your text for you.

Standard termbase (€)We have a standard termbase for foreign language acquisition which requires little to no effort (at least on your part) to integrate in the L-Book. To keep costs down, we might ask for your help with book-specific words and their translations. If you provide us with all the unknown terms and possible corresponding reference content in our specified format, then we will be able to directly integrate them into our termbase.

Customized termbase (€€€)If your termbase is unique to your sector or book, it will need to be created from scratch, which will affect costs, at least the first time round. Specific requests which are not compatible with our default termbase format will also drive up costs. If you do not provide us with the required input to fill the gaps in your termbase, this will require extra work on our part. The same holds true if you do provide us with the input but it is not formatted according to our specifications.

Monolingual (€)The simplest option is if you plan to only sell your L-Book with reference content in one language. We are, however, specialized in multilingual termbases and, depending on the language, it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to add new ones.

Multilingual (€€)By default, we offer L-Books for foreign language acquisition with translations into the four most commonly requested languages. Adding translations of your reference content into additional languages will effect the price, but is not prohibitive.

Small termbase (€)For customized termbases, if there are only 20 words you need annotated in your L-Book, then the termbase will be much easier to manage. Linking all its words with your text will be relatively straight-forward.

Large termbase (€€€)If your customized termbase requires thousands of words to be annotated, more time will be needed to format your termbase and link it with your content.

High sales-based license fee (€)If you are particularly interested in keeping costs down, we can considerably lower our conversion fee in exchange for a higher license fee, i.e. keeping a higher share of the net turnover from your L-Book sales. This is an offer we would typically extend to self-publishers or authors.

No sales-based license fee (€€€)

If you have no intention of selling your L-Books, then we effectively have a loss of prospective income from the sales-based license fee. In this case, we need to calculate our license fee based on expected sales or an annual flat rate. We are happy to work with you on finding a reasonable solution.

How much should I charge my customers for L-Books?

As a rule of thumb, we recommend charging approx. 25%-50% more per L-Book than your listed e-book price for the same title. After all, your customers are getting more content and, most of all, a considerable value add to their reading and/or learning experience.

There are essentially two different sales models for L-Books:

You sell your “L-Book enabled” e-book at the usual price through your usual channels and your customers buy the annotations separately in our brand-neutral L-Reader app, or your branded version of our L-Reader.

Your customers buy the fully functional L-Book on the L-Reader platform. The price includes the L-Book surcharge. Your customers pay only one price and stay in one ecosystem.

How many L-Books do I have to sell to turn a profit?

It is difficult to answer this question definitively, but let us take a generic (and rather realistic) example to crunch the numbers:

You commission an L-Book which has an overall production cost of net 2,000 euros.

Your normal listed price of this title as an e-book is 10 euros.

You sell the L-Book on the L-Reader platform (sales model 2) for 14 euros (40% surcharge).

Let’s say you are left with 5 euros after all shop commissions, taxes, license fees and royalties have been deducted.

Bottom line: You would have to sell the L-Book 400 times to cover your costs. Everything beyond that is profit.

Get a quote

Are you interested in converting some of your content into L-Books? Get in touch and let’s start the conversation!

General interest publishers

About the “L”

L-Pub stands for “Learning Publications”, which encompasses not only the typical understanding of learning, but any action by readers to still their curiosity.

The “L” also stands for language technology. Based on our core competences in natural language processing and termbase structuring, we offer a range of products and services to content owners across all genres and sectors.

Build a “termbase”

Even if you do not yet have a termbase (a database with reference content), you probably already have much of the content needed to create one. L-Pub can help you create a termbase using different tools and strategies. Learn more on the page Termbase services.

X-ray your texts

Are your texts appropriate for your target audiences? Do you have texts that need to be understood by non-native speakers or is there particular wording you need to use or avoid? Let L-Pub analyze your texts to give you a full view on what they contain. Learn more on the page Text analysis.

Get a quote

Are you interested in a text analysis or other services? Get in touch so we can start the conversation!

L-Pub

LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

L-Pub stands for “Learning Publications”, which encompasses learning in the traditional sense as well as simply giving readers access to relevant information. That’s what the “L” in L-Pub is all about: letting readers still their curiosity.

The “L” also stands for language technology. Based on our core competences in natural language processing and termbase structuring, we are able to offer a range of services to content owners across all genres and sectors.